*Genuflection: Bending, typically in worship to pray, or as
a sign of respect.

*Supplication: Asking for something humbly.

*As we traditionally know it, kneeling is a positive act.

We are now faced with a situation where a person who kneels
is interpreted as disrespectful. A negative act. There is no justification for
this interpretation, but there is precedent founded in racism.

Do you know:

*Michael Brown

*Walter Scott

*Sam DuBose

*Philando Castile

*Jamar Clark?

These are African-American males who have been shot dead by
white police officers, without provocation and lacking any sort of resistance.
Many were retreating or running away. Under no circumstances was the use of
deadly physical force justified. What do these men have in common with the act
of kneeling?

The common bond arises out of the actions of a professional
athlete who decided to honor the fallen and protest the epidemic by kneeling
during the playing of the National Anthem, before a football game.

The football player sent out a message for others to
understand that there were too many tragic events of black males being murdered
in the name of the law and to bring attention to a need for evaluation. Someone decided to bring attention to this
centuries old problem. His actions were lauded by some, but predictably reviled
by that segment of American society who distort patriotism to

justify racism. Such an act, say they, dishonors the flag and
those who serve in the military.

To construe an act that is honorific in nature as one of
disrespect is rife with hypocrisy, but understandable of those who take that
position. The hypocrisy lies in the history of this country which has denied
basic rights and freedoms to African-Americans.

Have you ever been told that you can't use that restroom,
you can't buy from that food stand or you can't drink from that water fountain
because of the color of your skin?

Let's go back to Oxford, Mississippi circa 1965. We are at a
University of Mississippi football game. Before the game starts the Ole' Miss
Marching Band plays the National Anthem. Everybody stands and faces the flag,
hand over heart perhaps, those in uniform saluting. If you are an
African-American attending this game, you're doing the same thing.

But if you are African-American you can't use the white
restrooms, you can't buy snacks or refreshments from the white food stands and
you can't drink from the white water fountain. And surely among those rising
and facing the flag, and putting their hands over their heart and saluting if
in uniform are African-Americans sitting segregated in the "Colored"
section. Those in uniform served their country in war and combat. Many shed their blood for their country. Yet in 1965 at the Ole’ Miss game while the
National Anthem played in the background, they are shunned.

Do you know:

*Terence Crutcher

*Alton Sterling

*Jeremy McDole

*William Chapman

*Eric Harris?

These are African-American males who were shot dead by white
police officers without provocation and lacking any sort of resistance. Many
were retreating or running away. Under no circumstances was the use of deadly force
justified.

Times have changed from our Oxford, Mississippi circa 1965 example.
But the discrimination has now taken a more evil and violent turn. Separate but
equal has long been exposed as the ignorant and fallacious proposition it
espouses. Discrimination now comes in other forms including acts of cruelty and
cowardice by those armed bigots shooting black men without cause. And don't
think for a minute there is any justification. How do you justify taking the
life of an unarmed man by shooting him in the back while he's running away from
a traffic stop for a broken tail light, other than by attributing it to overt
racism?

So after dozens of similar tragedies an athlete kneels
during the National Anthem, instead of standing. facing the flag, putting hand
over heart or saluting. The athlete is ostracized for being disrespectful to
the military and unpatriotic to the Country. Where were these accusers in 1965?

Do you know: George
Dorsey?

Mr. Dorsey was an African-American World War II Army veteran who on July 25, 1946 in Walton
County, Georgia was dragged from a car with his wife and another couple by the
Klan and brutally murdered. His transgression was being in the company of
another black man who had confronted a white man abusing his wife.

Do you know: Don
Newcombe?

Don Newcombe was an All-Star caliber pitcher in the Major
Leagues for 16 years. As was the case at the time his career was interrupted
for 2 years to serve in the United States Army. When he returned in 1952, he
could not stay with his white teammates in the same hotel when the team visited
St. Louis. The National Anthem was played before baseball games in St. Louis in
1952, too.

A controversy has
emerged from a professional athlete kneeling on the field when the Star
Spangled Banner, as I learned it, is played. To kneel when the music plays or
the song is sung is said to be disrespectful and offensive to those who served,
offensive to our Country. Really?

Do you know: Sgt. Isaac Woodard Jr.?

In 1946 Sgt. Woodard had been honorably discharged from the
United States Army and was on a bus heading home to Winnsboro, S.C. In route he was dragged from the bus, jailed
and brutally beaten by the white police chief in Batesburg. He lost his
eyesight from this beating.

Isn’t the treatment of Sgt. Woodard and many other black
veterans the real disrespect and offensive to those who served in the
military? Isn’t what continues to happen
to far too many black men today the real offense to our patriotism?

If you are watching S. W. Griffith’s silent film classic Birth of a Nation and see the Klu Klux
Klan come riding at you waving an American flag, do you stand up and place your
hand on your heart or salute? I don’t
think so. The scene is blatantly
racist. Why can’t we extend to the
football player the same awareness that some evils transcend traditional demonstrations
of patriotism?

And let’s not kid ourselves. If the Anthem played at the segregated
football game in 1965, and we didn’t complain, and the flag continues to
flutter in courtrooms today where murder is justified, then we have a lot of
work to do. Maybe we all need to kneel
and pray.

DECEMBER 1, 2018

When I sort my incoming mail at the
church it goes into three piles: never
bother, later, and immediate response. There’s
power in three.

But we always find four
Sundays in the Season of Advent. We
light an Advent candle on each of the four Sundays before Christmas. Traditionally a promise fulfilled in the
coming of Christ is attached to each day:
hope, peace, joy, and love. Then
on Christmas Eve we’ll sing “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in
Thee tonight.” The Advent promises culminate in the birth of Jesus signified by
the lighting of the white Christ candle. During Advent the power is fourfold,
but they lead to BIG event number five.

Often we use numbers to lay out a melody: “one two three, that’s how elementary it’s
gonna be…” Or to help a child learn to
count: “four five six, pick up sticks.”
The key is that the progression of numbers must lead somewhere you want
to go. “Come on let’s fall in love, it’s
easy.“ Advent is also a kind of number
progression. It’s cute in its way too,
with pretty candles and familiar songs.
But the power comes when it leads somewhere we really want and need to be.

As you get ready for Christmas most of us find we try to
squeeze three times the usual social
engagements, shopping, and communications into a finite time period. As we rush through the four Sundays of Advent like a whirlwind we try to remember why and
how the birth of Jesus brings hope, peace, joy and love to the world. We wonder if that will happen in our
lives. But if we remember to pay
attention to the message behind the four Advent candles then all our busy
preparations lead us straight to the BIG event number five.

For that BIG event you don’t need to go to church; you need
to be a church. There will be no
fireworks, not even angel choirs in the heavens. This Christmas I hope you’ll find stillness
and a calm, quiet place where you just know that God really is with you. That’s what the birth of Christ sings
out. When you hear that melody you’ll
find it’s sweeter than falling in love. It
tells you that you count forever.

Advent helps us find that place where we can receive the
message of Christmas. It reminds us how
much we need God’s quiet assurance.

May you discover this Christmas how the threefold God came in Christ
four you. Now, doesn’t that deserve a
high five?

Faithfully, Pastor Noel

OCTOBER 26, 2018

Pastor Noel posted the following commentary in the E-Tidings newsletter of the Community Church.

Here just before the mid-term elections we are all thinking
about what we “hope” will happen. Hope
is an increasingly precious commodity in our life together. Rev. Amy Thompson, the relatively new Senior
Minister at The Riverside Church in Manhattan, tells this story about hope:

I recently heard a Radiolab (public radio)
episode that tells the story of Alan Lundgard and Emilie Gassio. Two twenty-one year old art students, they
were living the dream in a loft in Brooklyn and studying art and basking in the
glow of young love… One day on her way to class Emilie was hit by a truck. In the ICU, clinging to her life, her parents
and Alan kept vigil around her bed.

For weeks they waited for her to recover, with
few signs of hope. The doctors were
getting ready to discharge her to a nursing home where she would likely spend
the rest of her life. But Alan thought
there was hope. He insisted, “She’s in
there, she just can’t get out.” Emilie
had hearing loss and wore a hearing aid.
Alan in desperation tried something he’d read about in a story about
Helen Keller. He traced out on her arm
the words, “I love you.” Emilie
immediately awoke briefly and responded.
But when more proof that she could really recover was demanded, Alan
tried putting in her hearing aids and turning them on. Suddenly, when that happened, when she could
finally hear, everything changed. “Just
by hearing your voice,” Emilie said, “I came back.”

At the end of this touching story Rev. Thompson asks simply,
“Where are you hearing hope today?”

I hear hope when I listen to our Bell Choir, the Bells of
Hope, play. Despite the comings and goings of different members the bells ring
on!

I hear hope when I go to visit a church family and we say
grace around the table together.

I hear hope sitting in my office at church and the MTA train
chugs by: hope for commuters that they soon will arrive home….hope for our congested metro
area that mass transit can work better than driving solo into the city.

I heard hope a couple Sundays ago when we baptized a baby with her family all gathered around…. I heard the hush of the Holy
when we all shared a sacred moment. God
was here.

But mostly I hear hope these days when someone lovingly
reminds me to listen for hope in my life. Isn’t that kind of what we do for one another
in the church… remind one another to listen?
Thank you for helping me listen for hope!

Faithfully yours --- Pastor Noel

November 30, 2017

Linda and I recently watched an Anthony Bourdain
“Parts Unknown” episode set in Manilla. We learned that the Christmas season in the Philippines begins in September with songs and many parties. The whole society enjoys a three month time to get away from seriousness and to share in the joy of recognizing someone and telling them, through a gift, that they belong. Then comes the arrival of gift boxes from the hundreds of thousands of Filipinos who work overseas separated from their families. It’s hard to get a box to arrive a week or two before Christmas when you send it from abroad. Plus, when you see your children or other loved ones only once every year or two you tend to over-buy out of an understandable feeling of sadness at the separation.

Filipino culture exhibits a different attitude toward gift giving than is typically found in the
United States. Their attitude toward gift giving emphasizes a gift as a means to make an occasion special and to show everyone they are included. Especially under the influence of advertising, our gift giving tends to try to reveal how special we are. We give gifts to show that we understand you, the recipient, perfectly, and thus found the perfect gift. Or in the church we hope our giving demonstrates that we are generous and kind to those in need.

How might Christ’s birth shed a new light?

The Christmas story tells of the three Wise Men bringing baby Jesus gifts to his birth bed in the
stable: gold, frankincense and myrrh. These fancy gifts were meant to show all that the newborn babe born to such poor parents in such “mean estate” was to be, in reality, a king. Then I think of the poet Christina Rosetti’s beautiful lyrics in the hymn In the Bleak Midwinter: “If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb… yet what I can I give him, give him my heart.” The Christ child elicited a response not so much of self-sacrifice but of awe. In him we see the holy.

Often we give gifts to show who we are. Other, non-Western cultures can show us the joy of giving gifts to include others. But the Christmas story spurs us to make our gifts point to the holy acts of God among us.

I don’t think this means presents should become “churchy.” But we might want our gifts to
capture what seems especially alive with the Spirit of Christ to us today. Are you “coming alive” in a new way? Share that. Do you have a new hope for the world? Tell people! Was there a wonderful experience this past year? Send me a picture. In every case God continues to bring us joy. This Christmas may you recognize anew that you have already received the greatest gift

of all: the gift of the birth of Christ, God-with- us.

– Faithfully and joyfully, Pastor Noel

JULY 26, 2017

A lament expresses our sadness to God.

I can’t wait to get “away” for vacation. Preparing for our trip, I wondered about the small towns we’ll drive through on the way to Vermont. “Hmm,” I thought. “I wonder what houses here cost.” The dream of a country getaway place dies slowly. Sunday, at dinner, I excitedly showed Linda and our daughter Sara an online real estate ad. “Look! This town, Hoosick Falls, has some really beautiful and inexpensive homes!” “Wow!” said Linda, “That’s a pretty house.” “Hoosick Falls?” asked Sara. “Yes, have you heard of it?” She replied, “As a matter of fact I have. Drinking water in Hoosick Falls was contaminated with PFOA, the toxic chemical in Teflon that makes it slippery.” Sara knows her stuff. Water contamination is her field. “The state doesn’t have a plan yet to clean the water. The best they can do is give people activated charcoal filters but that’s only a stop-gap measure.”

“At least now we know why houses there are so inexpensive.” Linda asked, “Is the moral of this story ‘All that glitters is not gold?’ Sarah chimed in, “I have a better one. Some online wit penned this one-liner: ‘Who’s Sick in … Hoosick Falls?’” Linda and I both groaned. “Think about how desperate people must be. You want to move out of town and get your child to clean water… but you can’t sell your home because no one is buying.” “Yes,” I thought, “the family that owned the pretty house would be happy to sell to some big city slicker from ‘far away.’”

It was my turn to be witty. “I think the one-liner for this story was coined by Anna Giordano.” Linda’s eyes widened, “That garbage recycling lady who came on so strong when she spoke at church?” “Yes, the very one,” I replied. “But she made a point that hits home. There is no longer an “away” in “throw it away.” Sara nodded: “Everything comes back to bite us. We think it’s going away someplace else and we don’t have to think about it anymore.” “But,” I interrupted, “There’s no longer an ‘away.’ All the systems are collapsing into one another.” “Right,” she interrupted me in turn. “Here’s another example. When we take antibiotics, we excrete it in our urine. Now they’re in all our water supplies and we can’t filter them out.”

Who’s to blame? Well, you can blame me. I once used a frying pan coated with Teflon. Anyone else want to raise their hand? Remember how Pogo told us years ago: “We have met the enemy, and he is us"?

My lament: O God, our actions bring us pain we do not anticipate, and we end up hurting others unintentionally. Forgive us. Heal your world. We pray it’s not too late.

Faithfully yours, Pastor Noel

March 27, 2017

We knew hosting the soup supper for the ecumenical Lenten Bible this past March 22 would prove challenging since our stoves in the kitchen are gone, and new (used) ones haven’t been purchased yet. I am so grateful to Margi and Ralph, Angela, Ana, and Austin and Gennette for bringing soups they cooked at home.

But I wanted to make soup, too. Cooking Tuesday at home got away from me, so Tuesday night I called a grocerey store and put in an order. I stopped by first thing Wednesday to talk about details. The best price I could get was $80 to feed twenty persons soup! So I said "No Thanks" and called some friends in the church.

Thank the Lord, Ana Pacheco was home. She had the cooking utensils and wasn’t going anywhere. So for $16 worth of ingredients we made enough to fill two big pots. It was a minor miracle of loaves and fishes.

We are trying out a new "Purpose Statement" as a congregation: Our current draft of it is: "Courageiously serving, as Jesus does, those iin jeopardy." Along the way to becoming a more "activist church" that genuinely wants to courageously serve those most in jeopardy in our world, we will need to sometimes say "yes" to a request before we know how to actually do what is asked. This can feel uncomfortable but the truth is churches today must skip ahead at least a generation in their decision making skills. Gone are the days in which an urgent decision can be put off to the monthly board meeting. The need and the opportunities to really make a difference don't wait any more. A great value in the secular world in which most people live is "nimbleness" in decision making. That means learning to become quicker, more flexible, and adaptive. Or, with my soup as an example, being willing to improvise sometimes when plan A doesn't work out.

This Easter we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus the Christ who brought to the world a "New Covenant" for salvation. But I believe the world had to say "yes" to God's plan. Mary had to be willing to carry God's child. Disciples needed to say "yes" to Jesus' "Come follow me." As so often in life timing is everything.

Let's celebrate Christ's resurrection by looking for his active presence in the world. Most often we encounter him where there is great need. Let's practice saying "Yes!" and give glory to God. It feels really good when we do.